I wish someone would give me a 100 bucks for my upright freezer. I hate that thing and it takes up room in my shop to freeze some popsicles!

Put it on CL someone will buy it. Tell your wife it was stolen.

Not a bad day.

I got to sleep early last night 230am. When the alarm went off at 9 it was pouring rain so I rolled over and kept snoring.

At some point while I was asleep it stopped raining and Steph went out and got the Caddy ready to crush. Good woman.

When I got up

Then I sent a few emails and returned a few calls and then saddled up in the BlueOx. A non eventful trip to the scrap yard and I was back home to get an invoice done for the finance company on the Caddy.

About 2 Christine and I headed up to Newton to pay them and get all the paperwork done. That took all of 10 minutes so I decided to swing by a friends shop in Newton.

He had a small amount of scrap so I tossed it in the bed of the truck then harassed him while he tried to work on cars.

At 445 I was back in the saddle and headed home. About 15 minutes out I called Steph and told her to get the BlueOx hooked up to the big trailer that still had the derelict pop up camper on it. When I pulled in the driveway it was hooked up and ready to go.

Heath and I pulled the Ox behind the shop and Steph jumped on the Hemorrhoid to yank the camper off.

With that done the BlueOx got backed up to the Wagoneer and we pulled it out on the driveway.

After setting up the ramps on the trailer we hooked Christine up to the Jeep and pulled it uneventfully up on the trailer. Sometimes that little truck is just surprising on wet ground with street tires on it she gracefully pulled a 6000 pound Jeep up the ramps.

Tomorrow I am pulling the axles and suspension out of it and it is going off to crush. I may go down and get my slave tomorrow and make him work off his debt.

Steph is trying her hand at sesame seed chicken tonight. She is on a Chinese kick and I like it.

Today was all messed up. Remember when I said that after a while my body will just shut down from lack of sleep and I will be out for 14 hours. Yeah. That was today.

I set my alarm for 10am when I went to bed at 4. I had told Steph to not let me sleep after my alarm because I had to get the Jeep axles out from under it. I never heard the alarm and she couldn't wake me up.

At 330 my eyes flickered open and I came to life enough to stagger in the kitchen I didn't see Steph anywhere so I figured she went shopping. I sat down with a cup of coffee and turned on the computer knowing that my whole day was shot.

Then I heard the impact gun. I went to the back window and saw Steph's little feet sticking out from under the Jeep. She had taken it upon herself to take the axles out.

So I got dressed and staggered outside after only one cup of coffee and got to work. She had been out there for an hour and had managed to get the radiators out, battery removed, rear shocks unhooked, brake lines cut, parking brake cables cut. And then she hit a snag. She could not get the spring bolts out.

After two hours of wrestling with it I managed to get them out. I reached up to pull a loose bolt out of the frame and I swear she stabbed me in the back right between the shoulder blades. I went to my knees in agony. I managed to get to the ground and lay on my stomach and had her come over and stand on my back till it popped back in place.

We finally rolled the axle off the trailer and got started with the small stuff. The aluminum bumper, tail lights, trailer hitch and other little stuff. Then it came off the jack stands and the front went up in the air.

Heath woke up from his nap and Steph brought him out and we incarcerated him in his outdoor playpen with a bag of chips while the Jeep was still up in the air.

The front was easy. About 20 minutes and it was swinging from the crane behind the DragonFly. I pulled the AC compressor, alternator, and front fog lights. Then the front aluminum bumper came off and the jack stands came out from under it.

Steph released Heath from his prison and he went tearing around the yard while we worked on a couple of other pieces.

I wish I could have gotten a video of him playing with the cats. He was down on all fours running after them and jumping on them. It was hilarious.

At one point he was standing by a tire laughing. Steph got curious and went to look. There was a little pot about 6 inches tall and 5 inches in diameter that was about half full of gear oil. The little monkey had both feet in it and was drawing on the tire with the oil.

After Steph cleaned him up, we picked up all the tools, and came in.

PapaJohn is cooking dinner tonight. My back is sore. I have a headache. I am drinking coffee and hoping it goes away.

I guess Friday night I am going to have to stay up all night and force myself to stay up all day so I can reset my sleep schedule. I am loosing too much work time to sleeping.

You have a top notch woman. Few men are as lucky as you are. Ive had one girlfriend over the years that would work on cars with me and I broke up with her. She was a good girl and I was a young fool. Thinking with the wrong head will get you in trouble every time...

This morning Steph loaded up all the trash on Christine and she and Heath headed off to the dump and do some shopping.

I sat and tried to unkink my spine for a couple of hours then I headed out to start pulling apart the pop-up camper. Right off the bat I had a problem. I tried to start the Hemorrhoid. Steph had left the fuel turned on. The engine started and instantly there was a cloud of white smoke. The engine was full of fuel again.

So I drained a gallon of fuel oil mix out of the engine and refilled it with fresh oil.

Then it wouldn't start. Had to jump it off. When it finally started it smoked like a house on fire for a minute to so then ran perfect. I swear one day I am going to set that tractor on fire.

Then I hooked up to the little trailer that was full of stuff and pulled it around to unload it. Then I had to jump start the tractor again. Like a dummy I turned it off.

Finally got the trailer backed up beside the pop-up and got to work.

After a couple of hours of yanking things apart Steph came home and started helping me. There was all kinds of stuff in that camper. Speakers, video game cartridges, books, and boxes of junk. We filled the little trailer up with junk.

Then the pile of wood that came off the camper spontaniously comusted.

If you ever want to scrap a camper – don't. I got about 70 pounds of aluminum, maybe 85 pounds of steel including the misc junk the guy left in it, the frame -125 pounds maybe, and a huge pile of carpet, styrofoam, wood, plastic and foam insulation. IT isn’t worth it. This one was free or I would not have touched it.

About the time the fire was lit the dogs started howling, then we heard sirens. I was hoping that my neighbors didn’t call the fire dept – I did have a burn permit. Now I wish they had been coming to my house.

When patrol cars started flying past my house I knew something was very wrong.

I left Steph tending the fire and tossed Heath in his carseat and we drove up to where all the emergency vehicles were. I met a friend on the way up and he said that a guy had driven into the house at the T intersection. The house has been hit several times.

I drove on up to the intersection and saw the remnants of a red corvette smashed into the porch of the house. Ambulance crews were running all over, but no one was taking he driver out. Then I found out that it was one of my neighbors.

I was in the way so I headed home and finished tearing the camper apart.

When the fire had died down to embers I went to the store to get somethings that we needed. When I came past the intersection the Corvette had a tarp over it. I knew it was bad.

On my way back I stopped I saw some friends in the crowd of 80 or so people that had assembled. With all those people there it was oddly quiet, only the sounds of the generators on the emergency truck that powered the huge lights could be heard. The story was pretty bad.

Mike had an argument with his wife and got in his new Corvette and went tearing up and down the road. On his last run his wife pulled out to follow him for whatever reason. When he got to the intersection he was going over 120 went through the intersection and slammed into the house. He was a alive for a while and one of my friends talked to him for a minute before he expired. As I stood there talking it dawned on me that he had never touched the brakes. There was not a skid mark anywhere and the grass in the yard was undisturbed save a single set of tire tracks. They think it was a suicide.

I talked to Mike a couple of times. Nearly everyone around here has stopped at the house at one time or another looking for something – a tire, a mower blade, a tractor part, or some car part. I can't say I remember a lot about him other than he seemed to be a good guy.

Night befor elast I couldn't get to sleep. I was laying in bed at 4am watching TV when Steph woke up and watched a show with me. I knew if I went to sleep the whole day would be wasted so I got up and refreshed my stats

At about 9am there was a knock on the door. It seems that I forgot the power bill this month. We didn't have enough cash on hand to pay it and the guy gave me till 11. I woke Steph up and we rushed around and loaded up all the radiators, alternators, wiring, and loose stainless steel we could find and loaded it up on Christine. Then I made a quick run to the scrap yard.

Then I ran by the power company at 11:25. After I paid the bill I had $1 left. Oh well. I have a huge pile of aluminum to take to the smelter on Friday.

After staying up for about 50 hours straight to try to reset my internal clock I slept for 12 hours and I felt a whole lot better.

Then I went to the

(My mom actually posted that on FaceBook this morning with my name under it.)

After spending an hour getting the cobwebs out of my head I poured my coffee in my thermos and headed outside. I started to clean up some stuff in my work area and soon I called Steph out to help. Heath ran all over the yard and was into everything while we worked.

I had the front axle out of the Wagoneer tight in my way so I fired up the DragonFly and used the mobile crane to put the axle behind the building.

Then I decided to put the gear shift plate back on it after it being off since I bought the tractor. Heath was in my lap the other day and tried to step down thru the opening while it was running. After putting it on the tractor wouldn't move. After scratching my head a bit it dawned on me. The plate was stopping the clutch assembly from going all the way up and engaging the belt because it has the wrong belt on it. So I took a 1x1 furring strip and put it under the front of the plate where it sits tilted up so that the pulley engages and Heath's feet stay out of the belts. .

The next door neighbor came over and asked if we wanted a recliner. Steph had wanted on for a long time so we went over and grabbed it. She said that the footrest was hard to work so I told Steph I would work on it later.

After we had the whole work area cleaned up and Heath completely filthy

I grabbed the recliner and carried it in the house. After turning it upside down I found the problem. Someone jumped on the footrest and bent the assembly under it.

I will take the recliner apart in a day or two and fix it. After cleaning up the work area I plan to get it filthy again tomorrow taking the last of the bad tractor engines apart that are piled up.